Where is the blessedness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I once enjoyed!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void
The world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

William Cowper on this very date wrote this hymn. He was a back-fence neighbor to John Newton (“Amazing Grace”). Cowper also penned “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood” “God Moves in Mysterious Ways” and sixty-some more hymns.